Difference between print quality and web quality??
Can someone explain to me in idiots terms the differences in quality between print documents and web documents? I regularly get told off by our printer (who's also one of our door supervisors) for using graphics that are optimised for web and they don't look right on print..
Hi, The main difference is the resolution of the images. The images you see on a web page are at 72dpi (dots per inch). The minimum you need for print is 300dpi.
*Remember you can downscale images, but never ever upscale images to the resolution you require*
aaah... so even though my camera says it's millions of megapixels, the same picture will be much smaller if printed to displayed?? that'd explain why he moans
One way of looking at it, say the size of your thumbprint is 1 inch long, for a web image to be displayed at that size (putting your thumb up against the screen), it needs to be around 72 pixels long (on a 72 DPI, dots per inch, screen, some are 96 DPI). For that same image to be displayed well on printed paper it needs to be 300 pixels long (on paper printed at 300 DPI, dots per inch).
Print quality/resolution is a lot higher than screen quality/resolution, which is one of the reasons why people can read books, but would get sore eyes if they tried to read that whole book via a computer screen.
The main difference is how the colours are mixed and the resolution, basically web images are RGB (red green blue ) colour pallette and tend to be 72DPI
Ofset printing, the traditional form of printing for large runs use CMYK ( Cyan Magenta Yellow and Black ) colour palette, and a resolution of 300DPI is really needed to get a crisp and vibrant finish.
Images can be converted from RGB to CMYK in a program such as photoshop
(drop image into photoshop and goto Image, then mode. you should see RGB/CMYK here)
Images created in RGB and then converted to CMYK can be a little duller
Although please be aware what you see on screen is not going to be exactly what you recieve from your printer. if you look at your files on two different P.C's chances are they would look different due to different screen resolutions and how you have the brightness/contrast etc set on your monitor.
Most digitally printers can accept CMYK and RGB colour files and work in both formats. Indeed a lot of manufacturers are now selling digital printing equipment which can work well for both
I always say to clients something along the lines of: 'If you want it to print at four inches wide, it (the bitmap/photo) needs to be approximately 16 inches across on screen.
If it's four inches across on screen, it will print approx 1 inch across.
Reason being that 300dpi is roughly four times 72dpi so this ready-reckoner seems to work well and get through.
I think... It's always a bugger to explain this concept to people.
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Difference between print quality and web quality??
It's always a bugger to explain this concept to people. 
